Boxing program fighting for funding

Teenagers are not usually seen out of bed before the sun, but for some Redfern youth, rising at dawn has kept them from a life of crime. However, their reason for getting up so early is under threat from a lack of funding.

The Clean Slate Without Prejudice program runs boxercise classes and a mentoring program in collaboration with the police for about 45 young people, 20 of them indigenous. Since it was introduced in 2009, the number of robberies committed by local Redfern youth has declined by 80 per cent.

Launched with a federal government grant of $300,000, Local Hero Shane Phillips has been helping pilot the program through his Tribal Warrior Association. The funding helps pay the mentors who ensure the youth go to school or work after their exercise.

Due to expire last December the grant has been extended, but is now coming to an end.

Mr Phillips told Adam Spencer on 702 Breakfast that it costs $150,000 to $200,000 a year to keep one youth in a juvenile justice.

"We've case studied 12 kids and in three years, we have saved the government $8.7 million" Mr Phillips said.

"For a fraction of that money, you can keep a lot of kids out and they can change the rest of their families."

The NSW Department of the Attorney General and Justice has been approached for funding, but no funding for this program is currently available.

A spokesperson from the department said the department funds other crime prevention programs and hopes the federal government will be able to continue to fund Clean Slate.